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Updated: Oct 30, 2025

Detection of Histone Modifications in Plant Leaves
Published on: September 23, 2011
Stablization of ACOs by NatB mediated N-terminal acetylation is required for ethylene homeostasis
Hai-Qing Liu1, Ya-Jie Zou1, Xiao-Feng Li1
1Institute of Cell Biology and MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Activities and Stress Adaptations, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
Abstract:
N-terminal acetylation (NTA) is a highly abundant protein modification catalyzed by N-terminal acetyltransferases (NATs) in eukaryotes. However, the plant NATs and their biological functions have been poorly explored. Here we reveal that loss of function of CKRC3 and NBC-1, the auxiliary subunit (Naa25) and catalytic subunit (Naa20) of Arabidopsis NatB, respectively, led to defects in skotomorphogenesis and triple responses of ethylene. Proteome profiling and WB test revealed that the 1-amincyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (ACO, catalyzing the last step of ethylene biosynthesis pathway) activity was significantly down-regulated in natb mutants, leading to reduced endogenous ethylene content. The defective phenotypes could be fully rescued by application of exogenous ethylene, but less by its precursor ACC. The present results reveal a previously unknown regulation mechanism at the co-translational protein level for ethylene homeostasis, in which the NatB-mediated NTA of ACOs render them an intracellular stability to maintain ethylene homeostasis for normal growth and responses.
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